The present invention relates to cassette tape storage devices and, in particular, to multiple compartment storage devices.
Cassette tapes have become increasingly popular. They are used in a variety of ways: to record music, as educational material, and as personal records, to name only a few. These cassettes have standardized exterior dimensions.
Cassette storage devices formed of a number of individual cassette storage compartments have been known for some time.
A problem with known cassette storage devices is in keeping the cassette tapes firmly in place so that they do not fall out when the devices are moved. Covers make access to the cassettes a bother. When in a vehicle, unless the cassettes are held firmly in place, they can rattle.
Gaining access to the tape cassettes can be difficult. Storage should be compact and the individual cassettes are thin, and so the tendency in design is to rack the cassettes very close together. Pulling the cassettes out of storage can be hard to do because neighboring cassettes can interfere with the removal of the desired cassette.
Attempts have been made to provide stackable and removably interlocking containers. One such unit is described by Shewchuk in U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,170. Shewchuck describes a multiple compartment container capable of slidably interlocking with identical units with dovetails. The container has a rectangular cross section and has rectangular projections or tenons on each of two adjacent outer surfaces and mating rectangular recesses on the other two outer surfaces. The dovetail keeps the units from pulling apart.
The containers described in Shewchuk contemplate the use of a storage drawer for each container. A user partially removes a drawer in order to insert or remove contents from the drawer.